The City of Huntington Beach has launched a New Public Safety Workers' Compensation Process to Lower Costs and Increase Productivity effective July 1, 2013.

Adams, Ferrone & Ferrone, representing the Huntington Beach Peace Officer’s and Fire Fighter's Associations, negotiated with the City of Huntington Beach to create a workers’ compensation ADR carve-out for resolving work comp disputes.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., July 3, 2013 - The Law Offices of Adams, Ferrone & Ferrone today announced that its labor and workers' compensation law firm successfully negotiated with the City of Huntington Beach to establish a new Worker's Compensation Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process for police and firefighters. The ADR process established a list of Independent Medical Evaluators (IMEs) who have agreed to evaluate the public safety officer within 30 days of a dispute and issue the medical report 30 days later. The goal of the new ADR program is to compress the time in resolving a workers’ compensation dispute to 60 days. The Labor-Management Agreement was approved by the Administrative Director on May 13, 2013.

Public safety officers in Huntington Beach have experienced lengthy delays in receiving medical treatment because of the "utilization review" process required under the current Workers' Compensation system, which has prolonged medical treatment disputes. As a result, the current system has contributed to increased costs and lost productivity for the City, which is required to cover 100% of employee salaries during the lengthy dispute. The new ADR process should increase morale, lower costs, increase productivity, dramatically shorten the life of a claim, and resolve disputes faster.